Why gold? Cramer said that gold is a special case because it tends to go up when everything else goes down. Think of it as stock insurance, he said, a safe haven. He continued to recommend the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD_), as owning the gold miners themselves has proven to be too risky.

Does gold really go up when everything else goes down? Since 2008 it seems to go down with the stock market to the best of my memory. Why doesn't he recommend owning physical gold? Doesn't his recommending SPDR Gold Shares just make it easier for gold to be manipulated with short selling and perhaps naked shorting therefore screwing the very people that listen to him?

Originally posted by sh76Gold's value is inflated by an entire society of paranoid people who think the thin veneer of civilization is about to crack (and have thought so for 50 years) etc.

There are parallels between that and petroleum, the price of which is also inflated by speculators.

The major difference is that petroleum actually has an important use in industry. The high value of gold relies strictly on the "greater fool" theory.

LOL!

You have been saying gold is a bubble for years. It is still above 1600. You and Kazet will keep saying the same thing for years to come. Kazet says it could be as much as 5 years, but that was about 6 months or so ago so maybe 4 and 1/2 by now. Are you saying Jim Cramer is a fool for recommending holding some gold?

Anyway you are ignoring the questions in my OP. This thread is not about whether or not gold is a bubble, just market manipulation.

You have been saying gold is a bubble for years. It is still above 1600. You and Kazet will keep saying the same thing for years to come. Kazet says it could be as much as 5 years, but that was about 6 months or so ago so maybe 4 and 1/2 by now. Are you saying Jim Cramer is a fool for recommending holding some gold?

Anyway you are ignoring the ...[text shortened]... ns in my OP. This thread is not about whether or not gold is a bubble, just market manipulation.

I never used the word bubble. The group of Chicken Littles that keep the price of gold up may last forever. I don't know.

Incidentally, when I reference the "greater fool" theory, I don't mean to literally call anyone a fool. It's a term of art that describes investing money in something without "real" value on the assumption that someone else will later will willing to pay you more for it, in spite of that lack of value.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool

I don't know if Jim Cramer is right or wrong. I do know that he was screaming (literally) about how strong Bear Sterns and Lehman Bros were right until the moment they went bust, so forgive me if I don't run to mortgage my family's future on his say so.

Originally posted by Metal BrainJim Cramer says this on the link below:

Why gold? Cramer said that gold is a special case because it tends to go up when everything else goes down. Think of it as stock insurance, he said, a safe haven. He continued to recommend the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD_), as owning the gold miners themselves has proven to be too risky.

http://www.thestreet.com/s ...[text shortened]... hort selling and perhaps naked shorting therefore screwing the very people that listen to him?

Originally posted by sh76I never used the word bubble. The group of Chicken Littles that keep the price of gold up may last forever. I don't know.

Incidentally, when I reference the "greater fool" theory, I don't mean to literally call anyone a fool. It's a term of art that describes investing money in something without "real" value on the assumption that someone else will later wil ...[text shortened]... went bust, so forgive me if I don't run to mortgage my family's future on his say so.

Obviously I disagree with Jim Cramer's assertion that gold goes up when other investments go down, so I think he is not worth listening to at least some of the time.

Maybe the doom and gloomers are not all wrong. The national debt is up there and some say dollar devaluation is the only way to make the debt easier to repay. Aside from Buffet's recent purchase of Heinz his actions don't seem like he is bullish on the economy. Food seems to do okay in a recession and I'm sure Warren knows that.